Smyrna times., 1887-01-19


the valley that only the finest are mar
keted. Thousands of such watermelons
as are sold at retail for ten to fifteen
cents in the East may now be seen
lying in the fields here. Many fruit
growers raise melons between their
trees.
Land is high in the Santa Clara Val
ley. you go on mans ranch lust
after heavy rain you may carry off
ten or fifteen dollars worth of his real
estate ON your feet. One has to be
careful about this thing. L have looked
at several million dollars worth of
ranches but haven't had the courage
land another thing that is necessary
to buy one. Good bearing orchards of
D to 70 acres are worth from $500 to
S1,OOO an acre, without buildings. I
nave seen hundred acre prune orchard
just coming in bearing, that sold re-
Gently for $4,000, and not building
on it. Farming land within four or
i've miles of San Jose sells at S125 to
$40 an acre for unimproved. Thev
claim 1t is good for ten or twelve per
cent. on that amount to the farmer.
l am thinking of buying a ten.acre
ranch of three-year-old fruit trees
which is held at $3.50 per acre-s3 500
for the whole. 1t is a fine Young or
chard but has no buildings and is
fenced only on one side. III buv it
estimate that | will pay $75 an acre for
the land, $75 an acre for the trees and
$500 an acre for the climate. It. NAV
not pay me much but will give me all
the exercise need hunting down the
gophers, and some day, if l buv it.
maybe | can sell my ranch to some
IenderfoOt" from the East for
$1,000 an acre and thus get out whole
and a little better. That strikes mo
as the way to get the most money out
of fruit growing.
Apricots, prunes and cherries are the
best fruits here. Prunes are being
more largely planted than all other
fruits combined. They have been very
profitable, and the grower can cure his
own crop. He is therefore not at the
mercy of the market and the transDor-
tation companies. A ffty-acre prune
orchard in full bearing will bring an
annual net income of $1,000 to $4,000.
am persuaded that the winter eli
mate of the Santa Clara Valley is about
the best one can find in this vale of bad
climates. OF course some spots are
better than others, and the foothills.
IN certain sheltered places, are the best
of all. California being a State of
many climates each ranch owner can
and does have his own private climate
which he can extol, and lie about. and
which, of course, goes with his ranch
when he sells it. Can anybody blame
man for praising his own private
climate when he has paid 5000 or $500
an acre for it? Just wait till I am
ready to lie about the climate of nv
ten-acre ranch
But, to the serious, California has |
the finest climates in the world. There
are cold places if one hunts for them.
but the sheltered valleys offer every
thing III the way of fine climate that
any reasonable person ought to expect
to lind this side Of Heaven. On this.
the l4th day of December the grass is
growing luxuriantly, the yards and
gardens are masses of bloom, the ten
derest plants show no frost touches.
women are carrying sun shades, chill
dren walk the streets without wraps.
hang outside of windows. the
air is as soft rs that of the fairest dav
OF an Eastern June, and the voice of
the man swearing at the cellar furnace
Is not heard in all the land. In fact
winter seems to have been dropped ont
OF the procession OF seasons, and one
fresh from the East, rs am, feels as if
he had jumped from early November
to late May and was just starting in on
brand new summer. When you Del
aware folks are going through your an
nual trials of being frozen stiff one
week and thawed out the next, when
you are showed under" in January
md February, when the billiards from
,he Northwest are blowing the tacks
'uC OF your carpets in spite of your
weather strips and storm doors, and
when many Of you are thinking how
lard 1t is to keep cellar furnace and
De a true christian both at the same
lme, we will be seeing this beautiful
'alley put on its brightest clothes. One (
leeds only to see the fences here to be
convinced that the winds of this valley
IRE not to be feared. A cheap style of
ence is made ofredwOOd pickets driven {
n the ground about three inches, and !
by one board nailed near the
Op. Fences of this sort that have been i
landing twenty five years are to be
cen near San Jose. The redwood I
tickets never rot in or out of the {
round. An Eastern Nor'wester would
low one of these fences into the next (
ountry between sundown and dark. I
l am convinced by my short ac- S
uaintance with it, and l have ridden /
yer only about ten square miles of it, t
hat the Santa Clara Valley of Califor-
ia is the most beautiful as we'll as the t
lost fruitful nook in the world. In Il
lpport of this we have the testimony II
f those who have seen all the famous j
laces of Europe and America and have Ii
len settled down here to spend the n
of their lives. Il
When the AtchisOn, Topeka and n
anita Fe Railroad opens its proposed Z
ne through this valley and south n
ard, connecting the present terminus II
its system at Mojave with San Fran Il
SEQ, which it will do within the next b
velve or eighteen months, and thus L
ring San Jose on a transcOntinental r
ne, the frost-bitten people of the
Orth and East will begin to find out :,
- IL